Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 39, arm quartet
As we continue our march toward Opening Day, we review multiple pitchers who had an impact in the Atlanta Braves franchise.
Over the course of the Atlanta Braves franchise, plenty of pitchers have made an impact. Not all of them have been positive. We’ll look at four notable arms that all happened to wear #39 today – Hoyt Wilhelm, Tom House, Al Hrabosky, and Len Barker.
Old Sarge
It’s incredible to consider that among the greatest knuckleball pitchers in the game’s history, many have pitched for the Atlanta Braves franchise. Arguably the top knuckleball reliever in history, Hoyt Wilhelm pitched parts of three seasons with the Atlanta Braves from 1969-1971.
By the time Wilhelm made it to the Braves, he already had over 900 games pitched, over 2,000 innings pitched, and over 200 career saves. Making his major league debut in 1952 at 29 meant that by the time he threw his first pitch for the Atlanta Braves late in the 1969 season, he was already 47 years old.
Wilhelm would help power the Braves to the playoffs that 1969 season with a 0.73 ERA over 8 games with the club, tossing 12 1/3 innings, saving 4 games, and picking up a 4/14 BB/K ratio down the stretch.
He opened the 1970 season with the Atlanta Braves and made the All-Star Game that season, but by September, it was clear that the Braves were not going to make the postseason, so they waived the 48-year-old Wilhelm. That offseason, the team acquired Wilhelm again, and he made just 3 appearances in 1971 for the team before he was released.
Overall, Wilhelm appeared in 61 games for the Atlanta Braves, pitching 93 innings, saving 17 games, with a 3.10 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and a 44/82 BB/K ratio.
Coach Extradinaire
Tom House is generally known for his work after he left the game as an active player for two reasons – first, he was an incredible pitching coach and throwing instructor. House would work with pitchers and potential NFL quarterbacks for years as a consultant after he finished up a two-decade-long coaching career in the major leagues, mostly with the Texas Rangers.
House’s second claim to fame is that he’s honest. House admitted to using steroids during the 1970s and has spoken often about how he was nowhere near the only one in the game using steroids at the time. That’s put a significant mark against those who want to deem steroids as a problem that appeared in the game in the late 1980s and exploded in the 1990s.
Originally an Atlanta Braves 3rd round draft pick in the June secondary draft, House moved quickly through the Braves system to make his major league debut in 1971. The lefty reliever would pitch 5 seasons with the Braves before being traded to the Boston Red Sox. In his 5 seasons with the Braves, he tallied 185 appearances, 279 1/3 innings, 28 saves, a 3.06 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP, and a 103/160 BB/K ratio.
Mad Hungarian
One of the more entertaining pitchers on the mound, Al Hrabosky had lost some of the zip on his once-dominant fastball by the time he got to the Atlanta Braves in 1980. By then he was relying primarily on his intimidation on the mound to get things done, and that intimidation routine was quite entertaining, to say the least.
From 1980-1982, Hrabosky appeared in 100 games for the Braves, tossing 130 2/3 innings, posting a 3.51 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, and posting a 57/64 BB/K ratio.